Rep. Tim
Griffin (R-Ark.) fired off a string of tweets about the
possible shooting at the U.S. Capitol buildingearlier Thursday
afternoon, with one tweet appearing to blame the incident on
President Barack Obama's and other Democrats' "violent
rhetoric."

UPDATE: Griffin's press office has
sent this expanded statement to Business Insider: "The
victims and their families are in my thoughts and prayers. The
shooting today is a terrible and inexcusable tragedy and an act
of terrorism. No one but the shooter is to blame.

We are still processing information about this shooting, but as I
have been saying for days, we all need to choose our words wisely
because violent rhetoric only coarsens our culture, creates an
atmosphere of incivility and is not helpful. I tweeted out
of emotion but agree that the timing was not
helpful."